Process of producing thick butt shingles with sealed edges



C. R. ECKERT Sept. 26, 1933.

PROCESS OF PRODUCING THICK BUTT 'SHINGLES WITH SEALED EDGES OriginalFiled Aug. 14. 1926 w M F. H

m m NQ NK ATTOR f Patented Sept, 26 1933 UNITED STATES PROCESS OFPRODUCING THICK BUTT ,SHINGLES WITH SEALED EDGES Clarence It. Eckert,Englewood, N. 3., assignor to The Barrett Company, New York, N. Y., acorporation of New Jersey Qriginal application August 14, 1926, SerialNo.

129,132. Divided and this application OctoberQ it, 1931. Serial No.568,495?

l eClaims.

This invention relates to a process of making shingle elements, and moreparticularly to the manufacture of thick buttstrip shingles having tabsdisposed along one longitudinal edge 85 of the body portion thereof, thecut edges of the strip shingles being sealed by means of a suitablewater-proof coating. This application is a division of applicationSerial No. 129,132, filed August 14, i926, claiming a continuous processfor making thick butt shingles.

'l'hick butt shingle elements have heretofore been made chiefly byhand-dipping a granular surfaced coated felt base into a bath of moltenasphalt or other bituminous material, the element allowed to drain andthen surfaced with granular material. This is an expensive andunsatisfactory manner of producing thick butt shingles since it involvestime-consuming hand labor and 0 waste of asphalt occasioned by thedipping opera- 5 tion.

In applicant's prior application, Serial No. 129,132, hereinabovereferred to, a continuous process of making thick butt shingles isdisclosed and claimed. This application is directed to the :5 novelprocedure disclosed in the prior application permitting the sealing ofall coated edges of the strip shingles with water-proofing materialduring the production thereof from a web of a width sufficient toproduce a plurality of 39 strips which are subsequently cut intoshingles, and this without transverse flexing or bending of the fibrousbase with consequent disrupting and weakening oi? the-base.

According to my prior application, a fibrous foundation preferably theusual roofing felt, is first saturated with asphalt or other bituminousmaterial, dried, and while moving in a horizontal direction, coated withasphalt on both sides. The top coating is then surfaced with granularniaterial and mica dust applied to the base coating wrender itnon-cementitious. Thereafter the surfaced web is cut longitudinally intoa plurality of strips, four in the embodiment of the r inventiondisclosed. Each strip is cut so as to 9 provide tabs along onelongitudinal edge thereof The face of the spaced tabs and the out edgesare then coated with asphalt or other waterproofing material andgranular material is apr plied to the coating to form a thick buttshingle,

" the tab portions of which have a double coating and surfacing on thefelt foundation whereas the body portion'has but a single coating andsurfacing on the felt foundation.

, To permit the effective sealing of the forward tab edges of the stripwith coating material in continuous processes of manufacturing theelements such as briefly described above, it is necessary to separatethe contiguous strips formed in the longitudinal slitting of thestarting web. If the strips are not separated the coating 9 materialapplied to the surfaces of contiguous strips adheres to the facesthereof and does not effectively seal the longitudinal out edges.Separating the strips by causing them to move apart from each otherafter the web is cut, involving $55 transverse movement of the cutstrips with respect to the portions of the web from which they are cut,it has been found, weakens and tends to disrupt the felt base, seriouslyimpairing the final product. l

in accordance with this invention the strips formed by the longitudinalslitting operation are separated by passing alternate strips aboutguides so that-they travel in the same longitudinal direction as theportions of the web from which they are-cut but in a difierenthorizontal plane from the plane of movement of the remaining stripsformed in the cutting operation. Thus, if tour strips are out from a weband the strips be numbered 1 to 4 from right to left, viewing Fig. 3 ofthe drawing, strips 1 and 3, while traveling in the same longitudinaldirection as the portions of the web or fabric from which they are cut,are caused to travel in a different horizontal plane and areconsequently separated a distance equal to the width of the interveningstrip. Separation of the strips in this manner gives ready and completeaccess to the cut edges of the strip in the succeeding coating andsealing operation. w Strips 2 and 4 may travel in the same horizontalplane as the starting web or may be elevated'or depressed to travel in adifierent plane from that in which strips l and 3 travel. Thus, it willbe noted that the individual strips are separated while continuouslymoving in the same longitudinal direction as the portions of thestarting web from which they are out without moving the stripstransversely of the longitudinal direction of movement of thecorresponding portions or the oo starting web. Hence, the felt base isnot subject to strains and weakening influences occasioned by movementof a portion of the strip transversely, to the longitudinal direction ofmovement of the remaining portion of the'strip.

In the accompanying drawing illustrating one embodiment of thisinvention in which like ref= erence characters refer to like parts- Fig.1 is a diagrammatic side elevation, vpar-- no tially in section, of thetype of apparatus which asphalt or tar.

invention;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the web as it travels through theapparatus;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view showing the cut web as itleaves the longitudinal cutters and indicating the path of movement ofthe cut strips resulting in the separation thereof;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section partly in elevation of apparatus which maybe employed for the application of the butt thickening coating to thestrips;

Fig; 5 is a plan view of the apparatus of Fig. 4. showing the coatingmechanism for two strips; and

Fig. 6 is a section, taken through one of the tabs, of the thick buttshingle of my invention.

Referring now to the drawing, a web A of roof ing felt of the desiredwidth is led through the saturating tank 5, where it may be impregnatedwith a suitable water-proofing compound, such as The saturated webpasses between the squeeze rolls 6 for removing excess saturant afterwhich the web may 'pass over dry- ;ing racks 7 for allowing thesaturated web to cool somewhat. The web is then fed through the coatingrolls 8 and 9, by means of which a relatively thin coat ofweather-proofing compound, such as tar or asphalt (usually of a highermelting point than that of the saturant) is aphere.

plied to the impregnated sheet. While the coating is still soft, the webpasses under the hoppers l1 and 12 and around the rolls 13 and 14.

The hoppers 11 and 12 are of usual design, hopper 11 containing crushedslate, or other wearresistant granular material, of any suitable coloror mixture of colors which may be showered upon the face of the coatedweb, thus surfacing the web. Hopper 12 contains mica dust which is fedto the rear surface of the web as it passes about roller 13, thusrendering the rear surface of the web non-cementitious.

The web now passes over the cooling rolls 15 and 16 and over the idlerroll 17 and between the platen roll 18 and the cutting roll 19. By theinstallation of the desired cutting roll the finished shingle elementmay be made to take the form of a strip having rectangular tabs, orhexagonal tabs, or octagonal tabs or other desired shape. Such cuttingpractice is, in general, known to those skilled in the art, and it isthought, need not be dealt with more specifically After passing thecutting roll, the web A will appear as a plurality of strips 1, 2, 3,and t (Figs. 2 and 3) These strips pass through the tab knocker 20 andsplitter assembly 21 which; in the case of the type of shingle stripshown,

removes the cut outs and splits the almost severed web into stripshaving shinge simulating tabs. (The specific details of this assemblyare described and claimed in U. 8. Patent No. 1,744,-

are) Obviously, if octagonal or hexagonal shingles are being producedcertain portions of the tab knocker and stripper assembly, such as thetab knocker itself, would be omitted.

The cut web, shown to the extreme leithof Fig. 3, now passes on toconveyor bands 22 and 23. Strips 1 and 3 are carried by bands 22 in adownward direction while strips 2 and 4 are naeaeaa 4 also travel in thesame longitudinal direction I as the direction of movement of theportions of web A from which they are cut and pass over idler roll 65while strips 1 and 3 pass over idler roll 64 to the tab orbutt-thickening apparatus 1 hereinafter described. Thus, the strips aresaparated without distortion to give ready access to the cut edgespermitting effective sealing of the cut edges.

The strips 1, 2, 3 and 4 are now ready to have i applied thereto the tabor butt-thickening coating of weather-resisting compound such asasphalt, tar, or other bituminous material. This is accomplished bymeans of an apparatus as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, and indicated generallyin Fig. 1 by the reference numerals 24 and 25.

The coating apparatus of Figs. 4 and 5 involves a coating material tank33 arranged to feed the coating material to a coating roll 34 having anenlarged portion 35 thereon. The flow of coating material from tank33'upon the enlarged portion 35 of roll 34 is controlled by means of agate 36. Enlarged portion 35 of roll 34 applies the coating 30 to theupper side of the tabs and to the edges thereof, while the strips aresupported on plates 66, the coating material being supplied to theportion 35 of roll 34 slightly in excess of that needed to coat theupper surface of the tabs so that sufiicient coating material will runover the edges of the tabs to coat '1! them. Thus, the face of the tabsand the cut edges thereof are completely covered and sealed withbituminous coating material. If desired additional coating material maybe applied to the cut edges by means of a pipe or hose arranged 1 todischarge coating material onto the edges.

While thecoating material is still soft and plastic the strips 1 and 3,and 2 and 4 pass under crushed slate hoppers 36, one for each strip,which shower crushed slate or other wear-resist- 11 ing material uponthe coated portion of each. strip. As shown in Fig. 1, the strips alsopass over the rolls 41 which press the crushed slate into the plasticcoating. The strips are then conducted over the cooling rolls 42 andoverthe 11 timing rolls 43, projections upon the periphery of which engagein the notches between the tabs upon the strips. The cutters 44 are sosynchronized with the timing rolls 43 that the strips are out along aline of severance between the tabs 11 to form the finished shinglestrips or elements 50, a section of which is shown in Fig. 6.

From Fig. 6 it will be noted that the element involves a felted fibrousfoundation 51 which may be and preferably is the usual roofing felt.This felt, as hereinabove described, is saturated with bituminousmaterial and then the upper surface is completely coated with bituminousmaterial as indicated at 52. If desired, the base of the feltedfoundation may be rendered non-cementitious by dusting it with mica,indicated by the reference numeral 53. A layerof granular material 54 ispartially embedded over the complete face of the bituminous coating 52.A second coating 55 of bituminous material extending about the cut 14edges of the tab, thus sealing the edges, and over the tab portion onlyof the element, is then ap-= plied to thegranular surfacing 54. Granularmaterial 56 is then partially embedded in the bituminous coating 55. Bythe expression moving alternate strips in the same longitudinaldirectionas the portions of the base from which they are cut, used in the claims,is meant that the direction of movement of the strips after contiguousstrips have manage been separated either by depressing or elevatingalternate strips is in the samelongitudinal direction as the directionof movement of the web from which the strips were cut.

While the embodiment of the invention hereinabove described pertains tothe manufacture of thick butt strip shingles, it will be understood thatthe invention is not confined thereto and is applicable to the treatmentof fibrous and other bases which are weakened or disrupted by moving aportion thereof transversely to the remaining portion.

I claim:

1. In the method of treating the edges of a plurality of strips producedfrom a single web which is weakened when a portion thereof is moved inthe same plane transversely to the remaining portion, the improvementwhich involves cutting the web into a plurality of contiguous strips,and moving alternate strips in a diiierent plane from that in which theremaining cut strips move, thus separating the contiguous edges of thecut strips a distance equal to the width of the intervening strips cutfrom the web.

2. The method of sealing the edges of contiguous strips of felt cut froma felt base which comprises moving a felt base, cutting said base into aplurality of contiguous strips, moving alternate strips in the samelongitudinal direction as the portions of the base from which they arecut and in a difierent plane from that in which the remaining stripstravel, thus separating the cut edge of the strips 2. distance equal tothe width of the strips between alternate strips when out and treatingthe cut edges of the strips with waterproofing material.

3. The method of sealing the edges of contiguous strips of felt cut froma felt base which comprises moving a felt base in a horizontal plane,cutting said base into a plurality of contiguous strips, movingalternate strips in the same longitudinal direction as the portions ofthe base from which they are cut in a plane at an angle to the plane ofmovement of the felt base and then in a plane substantially parallel tothe plane of movement of said base and the plane of movement of theremaining strips, thus separating the cut edges of the strips a distanceequal to the width of the strips between alternate strips when out andcoating the cut edges of the strips with waterproofing material.

4. The method of making thick butt shingles having tabs disposed alongone longitudinal edge which comprises continuously moving a felt webthrough a saturating bath, continuously coating with waterproofingmaterial the upper surface of said web, continuously surfacing withgranular material the coated face of said web, continuously cutting saidweb into strips each having tabs disposed along one longitudinal edgethereof, continuously separating saidstrips by moving alternate stripsin the same longitudinal direction as the portions of the base fromwhich they are cut and in a plane different from the'plane of movementof the remaining strips, thus separating the cut edges of the strips adistance equal to the width of the strips intervening alternate stripswhen cut, coating the tab portions and the cut edges of each strip withwaterproofing material, applying granular material to the coatedportions and severing each strip transversely into strip shingles.

CLARENCE R. ECIERT.

